Case Number 26661

Fast & Furious 6 (Blu-ray)

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All Rise...

Judge David Johnson is slow, but he's furious!

The Charge

Way faster. Way furiouser.

Opening Statement

I'm just going to go ahead and commandeer this spot for a brief hat-tip to
Paul Walker. I've always liked the guy. What he may have lacked in acting chops
and technique, he made up for in earnestness. In his films, he always struck me
as genuine and as obituaries spill out following his death, he apparently lived
his off-screen life in similar fashion. His finest film and finest performance
is hands-down Running Scared
(2006), a film I am convinced will go down as one of the cult classic
all-timers. But he made his name in the Fast and Furious movies, so it's suitable
for this, the best of the bunch, to offer the lingering memory of seemingly an
all-around cool guy. R.I.P.

Facts of the Case

When we last left our group of antiheroes in Fast Five, Rio was a flaming ruin and The
Rock was pissed. Fast-forward, and Dom (Vin Diesel, Pitch Black) and Brian (Walker, Into the Blue) are living it up in a
non-extradition country. But when Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) shows up
with a picture of the previously-thought-deceased Letty (Michelle Rodriguez, Avatar) and the promise to clear their
names and take down an international terrorist, they can't resist jumping into
their racing harnesses again.

Foreseeing what is sure to be an awesome time jumping off of cars and
battling tanks on the freeway, the gang transforms itself from a group of car
thieves into a petrol-crazy superhero team. And the world is better for it.

The Evidence

Great flick! I emphasize the word "flick," and all the connotations
that come along with that term: breezy, macho, explosive, cool. Fast &
Furious 6 has been engineered to blast you, the viewer, with as much
high-octane, ridiculous action as can be conjured. In a summer full of big-ass
popcorn blockbusters, I found Fast 6 to be the popcorniest and
bockbusteriest of them all.

I'm saying this with no hint of smarminess either. When a franchise goes six
movies deep, particularly an action franchise, the law of diminishing returns
would kick in big-time. The Fast folks have managed to sidestep the
vortex of mediocrity by continually re-inventing their franchise. Fast &
Furious drifted more towards action and away from the Point Break knock-off stuff, Fast Five introduced Hobbs and went total
heist movie and, now this, a full-scale blow 'em up that makes only a cursory
node towards the series' street-racing roots.

Seriously, it's inspired to take this assemblage of antiheroes and turn them
into actual heroes, like having them fight murderers and defend American
freedom and stuff. In addition to make everyone totally root-worthy now, it
cements Dwayne Johnson as member of the team and, if anyone fits into this
universe, it's this guy. Adding Luke Evans as a slick villain drops in the final
ingredient, leaving only the writers to come up some of the battiest action
sequences you've ever seen.

Not hyperbole either. The hijinks they cook up are eye-popping and,
thankfully, only get bigger and better. They work their ways up to the fireworks
and they deliver. The one-two punch is a back-to-back pair of set-ups involving
a tank and then a bonkers cargo plane chase. Nothing I can write here will do
them justice, however; see this film on the biggest, loudest home theater rig,
and bask in the lunacy of one the most surprisingly entertaining summer movies
I've seen in a long time.

High performance Blu-ray all the way: a sharp, beautiful 2.35:1, 1080p
transfer pumps out the visuals with the type of verve and, well, fury you would
demand from an extravaganza like this; for audio, the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
delivers, dropping motor noise, a hyper score and an enveloping effects
experience. Good stuff in the extras as well: deleted scenes, on-set footage
featuring Vin Diesel, a making-of documentary, Justin Lin's director's
commentary, an in-movie experience featuring cast and crew and four featurettes
on the fight scenes, the cars, the special flip car and the tank and plane
chases.